Get down to it!- ONLY at that time of the year

Sex education in schools has recently come out into the open. Which brings me to my take on schools and family planning -in B’lore, at least! Read on , folks, and you will understand, and I’m sure, empathise!

Family planning acquired new dimensions for my husband and me since Nov 2005. Our son completed two years in Feb 06. We had heard from parents that if you wanted to put in your child into a reputed school, you had better apply from the time he was around two. So wanting to do well by our one and only child, and Oct/Nov being the time when you get application forms from the schools, we dutifully did that in Nov 05. We approached 3 Montessori schools around our area. Only to be turned away from all doors.

He is too young, he has to be between 2.6 and 3 in Jun, the authorities at various schools replied, to our anxious enquiries. We shook our heads at all the eager-beaver parents who had sparked off this start-at-two-years story, put him into a nice playschool nearby, and waited for Oct/Nov 2006. We knocked on the doors of the Montessori school nearest to us. Only to be turned away again. This time we were disillusioned and severely irritated/worried.

Your son is over-age. He has to be between 2.6 and 3 in Jun of the academic year, parroted the authorities. What do the hapless parents do, whose children are born in the wrong half of the year? Keep their children at home? We were told that we could try putting him into the first standard. What is the guarantee that in the first standard, my child will get admitted over all those other little ones who have passed out from Montessori1, 2 and 3 of the same school? His current Montessori playschool (Mitrajyoti) is perfectly nice, and I am more than happy for him to continue there, but unfortunately, it does not go beyond M3. (the third year of Montessori ) So I have to perforce remove my child from there and put him into another school where he can continue uninterrupted till his Plus 2 (hopefully). But that is something easier written than done!

So now whenever I talk to my newly married friends who tell me they are 'planning', I advise them to most importantly, get down to IT and do it so that the kid is born in that half of the year which makes him/her "between 2.6 and 3 yrs in Jun of the academic year’! Do it thus and ONLY thus! Will save you a lot of headache three years down the line. This is also for all my unmarried readers out in the blogosphere who would like to put their children into Montessori schools...

Any of you parents out there who have gone thru similar 'pleasant' experiences, pls feel free to comment.